RE: Isotretinoin and Rosacea

3 posts in this topic

I have been reading this forum for a year and half, and I have been a member for almost one year. I joined because I started Accutane therapy to control/stop steriod induced rosacea. Steriod induced rosacea is currently the only curable form of rosacea. I have also suffered from acne since puberty and today I am 43. It was in trying to fix my acne that I ended up with a form of rosacea.

Since I have been here I have seen what I think is a horrible trend. There have been several members of this board whose skin has developed rosacea like symptoms and they attribute this to oral and topical isotretinoin. I believe they are suffering greatly, I believe their suffering is related to isotretinoin, but I also believe their experiences are very uncommon. And now their posts have been leading many visitors to this board - terrified that if they use isotretinoin this will happen to them.

The fact remains that isotretinoin both oral and topical has helped many people over come acne. It has controlled rosacea for many as well. In my case it cured my rosacea and I was for the record taking 120 mg a day, 2mg per kg of my weight for the last three months of my therapy. If I believed what I read on here, than I should have a horrible rosacea and I don't.

The rosacea forum has three good stickies that contain awesome, well written information detailing rosacea. However, each day more and more people start posts asking if they have rosacea. These are people who have red skin, that is caused by one, several or all of the following: 1) inflammed acne, 2) topicals which are aggravating their skin, 3) topicals which naturally produce redness during the beginning of treatment until tolerance is built up, and or 4) the common side effect of redness that occurs during oral isotretinoin treatment and naturally subsides anywhere from 3 to 6 months after stopping treatment.

This forum is a godsend of information for many people. I for one have learned a lot on here and it helped my 7 month course of Accutane be a lot less scary. It is a shame that for all the good information on here, people are getting terrified by a few members whose experiences are uncommon and purely anecdotal. I am not asking for those who are having problems to stop posting. But, everytime I read this forum and I see a post by a terrified newbie, I want to comfort and inform them - but I don't have the time to do that with everyone. I really wish that one of the moderators on this board could put up a warning about this so that people are not unnecessarily alarmed by something they have no reason to be alarmed about.